And to Cap it all they’ve worked out a deal

Let’s face it. You are never going to see farm organisations jumping up and down with delight, so when they cautiously welcome something you know they are pretty happy.

This was broadly the reaction to the deal on Common Agricultural Policy reform hammered out in Brussels on Tuesday night between the EU's 27 agriculture ministers. They have now agreed their negotiating mandate for next month's talks with the Eu ropean Parliament and the European Commission.

But what does this mean for farmers, and why do people keep bandying around jargon such as convergence and approximation and decoupling?

The talks are trying to come up with a mechanism for distributing the Cap’s €373 billion budget for the next seven years. Farmers receive these payments in exchange for guaranteeing a safe and secure food supply while adhering to environmental and welfare standards.

Irish farmers will get single-farm payments of about €1.2 billion a year, but who gets what still has to be worked out. For years the payments were based on the production levels of farmers in 2000-2002. This means farmers who were very productive back then are getting large payments now, even if they are no longer as productive. Similarly, farmers who were only getting started then but have been working very hard since are still stuck on low payments.

The European Commission is on a mission to change this with its plan to pay all farmers a flat rate per hectare, regardless of their farming activity.

A much better idea? Yes and no. It’s good for those farmers who were trapped on small payments and are now farming a decent amount of land. It’s not good if you farm a small amount of land but have many cattle on it and therefore have a good single-farm payment.

If you are lucky enough to have hundreds of acres with just a few bullocks roaming across them you would see a huge increase in your payment. These so-called armchair farmers have regularly been cited by the main farm groups as the reason why the new model is unfair. But farmers with large swathes of poor land who could see significant increases in payments have accused the main farm groups of fighting only for their wealthier members.

On Tuesday night the agriculture ministers agreed member states should have flexibility in introducing this flat payment rate, which would allow a more gradual move towards the new model.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney says 60,000 farmers will benefit under the deal, while 54,000 will see losses.The ministers also agreed that member states could pick 2012,2013 or 2014 as the reference year on which to base the payments. Mr Coveney favours 2012, which would be welcomed as it would stop the race to acquire land to maximise payments. On the downside, Macra na Feirme was disappointed that the agreement changed a top-up payment for young farmers from a mandatory to a voluntary measure.

The consensus from farm groups is that the outcome could have been much worse but a lot could happen before the final agreement is made. Now let’s talk about convergence, approximation and decoupling. Oops, we seem to have run out of space.

ALISON HEALY